Turkish Coffee and Turkish Tea (Çay) and Happy Valentines Day

February 14, 2005

Butch, VERY cool info.

I understood chai/cha/various deviations to pretty much worldwide be the

generic words for tea in their respective languages. That, in fact, our

word " tea " derived from that word. I am an Indian chai purist to some

extent, at least as much as I can be while not in India, and I don't put odd

things in it personally, although the vanilla is a bit tasty must admit.

Goodness... I'll have to read this again. SO intriguing. Thanks for the

correction on the " Turkish " coffee I wrongly described! Oooh goodie

something new to try.

Glad you had a great V-day, as well as the rest of the good people on the

list, and mine hopefully will be starting in its proper form in an hour or

so. Yesterday I got an early gift of... dirt. Well, and some seed starter

cups for my herb garden. I'm a gardening newbie.

- Michelle

Butch Owen [butchbsi]

Tuesday, February 15, 2005 3:29 AM

Turkish Coffee and Turkish Tea (Çay) and Happy

Valentines Day

Hey Michelle,

Happy Valentines Day to all. Mine was a gud'un the afternoon and the

night and I hope y'all had one too. Now its way past midnight here ..

the morning of 15 February .. I'm one tired puppy but I have time to

read some mail afore I crash.

Yes Kathleen .. I'm gonna crash afore the morning sun pops up. ;-)

> Anyone out there (I bet there are a few takers on this one, knowing

> what I do...) like Turkish coffee? The cardamon... oh wowie wow wow.

Authentic Turkish Coffee NEVER has Cardamom in it .. Arab Coffee does.

That's the primary difference between the two. Some Arabic countries

routinely put Cardamom in fine ground (suspended) coffee .. otherwise

widely known as Turkish / Arabic Coffee.

I dislike Cardamom in mine but I've been spoiled on a daily basis with

fresh ground Turkish Coffee for many years now. ;-)

For information on the history of coffee see my old Turkish web site ..

http://www.bsi-hq.com/coffee.html

What is not mentioned there is that ALL of the phonetic pronunciations

of Coffee are from the original Ethiopian, Arabic or Turkish words. The

French and Spanish Cafe, the Italian Caffe, the German Kaffee, the Dutch

Koffie, the Finnish Kahvi and the Greek Kafe. Unusual it is but I find

most of the Greeks (especially the older ones) still refer to the drink

as Turkish Kahve.

I do not sell Turkish Coffee now.

But I do sell the Cups/Saucers sets from world famous Kütahya Porcelain,

the Brass or Copper Cezves, the Brass Serving Trays and the Brass Coffee

Grinder-Spice Mills from my company in Maryland .. they can be seen at

the following URL ... http://www.bsi-hq.com/sundries.html

And I still have a few of the Brass and Copper Shepherd Lanterns for

candles .. at http://www.bsi-hq.com/other.html

Folks who are interested can write me for prices. I gar-an-tee you'll

be surprised and pleased. ;-)

As for the " Chai " lots of folks are discussing .. Vanilla, Chocolate,

Spiced, Raspberry, Green .. I've done a bit of research on that too but

never put it on a web site as I didn't sell Teas (except for Herbals).

But Chai and Tea originally had the same meaning .. still do in fact but

the marketers try to make it appear to be two different critters. The

word " Çay " .. pronounced CHAH-yee .. is Turkish for Tea.

The Arabs pronounce it the same way but when they translate to the Roman

alphabet they normally write it as " Chi " . The word " Chia " is the same

word in the Indian (Hindustani) language. The Indians spiced the Tea up

a bit .. they took Black Tea and added milk, spices and sugar .. and

though they still call that combination Chai .. the marketers have

spiced it up a bit more and call it this and that Chai. ;-)

The Persians (Iranians) often spice up their Tea with Cardamom and Rose

Hydrosol .. I don't like that either.

Turkish Coffee is the more famous Turkish drink because its the one the

tourists crave, but Turkish tea (Çay) is really the national drink of

the masses .. matters not where you go if you stand still in a shop for

more than 2 minutes someone will offer you a Çay. Turkish Çay is brewed

from Tea grown on steep mountain slopes of Turkey's eastern Black Sea

coast.

Traditionally, Turkish Çay is brewed Samovar Style, with a small pot of

very strong tea sitting on a larger pot of boiling water. You then pour

a small amount of the strong tea into a little tulip shaped glass and

cut it to the desired strength you want with hot water from the bottom

of the Samovar.

There are basically two types of Çay in Turkey and they depend on the

strength you want .. " Koyu Çay " (koh-YOO) which is strong, dark Tea

and " Açik Çay " (ah-CHUK) which is a weaker and lighter Tea. And there

are forty eleven other aromatics used as Teas .. from Apple to Oregano

and beyond.

We NEVER use milk or lemon in Çay.

We have a Çayhane (Tea House) on every corner in Turkey. One who makes

or serves Tea is called a Çayci. Some Çaycis (especially in tourist

locations) dress in the traditional style .. a colorful vest and a sash

around the waist. They carry a tray suspended on a ring that can swing

back and forth without spilling the contents.

Turks drink a lot of Çay .. Winter and Summer .. morning till night ..

but the tiny glasses hold but 2 oz or so. Every company or government

office has a Çayci who also serves as a Boy Friday .. I had one in my

company for nine years.

I reckon that's about all there is to this tale. ;-)

Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch http://www.AV-AT.com

Wholesale/Retail GC Tested EO and Rose Otto, Tested Hydrosols and other

nice things from our store in Friendsville, Maryland .. population 597.

February 15, 2005